| Wasn’t it General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, once US Commander of the US Forces in the Gulf War, who complained: “Seven months ago, I could give a single command and 541,000 people would immediately obey it. Today I can’t get a plumber to come to my house”? Sic transit Gloria arma. One can understand how General Schwarzkopf must have felt. One can understand how former President/General Musharraf must feel in his own wilderness. One can empathise with his successor President Asif Ali Zardari in his predicament. How does one get half a million soldiers in the Pakistan Army to obey one’s orders, especially in the Northern Areas and FATA? |
| The recent accord between the form of the Pakistan Government and the substance of the Tehreek-e-Nifaze-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi that led to the Nizam-e-Adil Regulation 2009, tests not simply the ability of the Government to enforce its writ: it questions, and in doing so, undermines the concept of Pakistan’s identity as a nation-state. |
| Thumb through any text-book and it will teach you that the three attributes of a nation-state are national unity, a uniform national culture, and territorial integrity. There would be many a sub-nationalist Sindhi, Balochi, Pathan or Punjabi who would contest the assertion that Pakistan has even after 62 years achieved national unity. An equal number of Urdu-speaking Muhajirs, bilingual urbanites, and devotees of regional dialects would question where they fit into the mosaic of a national Pakistani culture. |
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas [FATA] are being replaced by TATA — Taliban Administered Tribal Areas. Their strength, like that of the invading Spaniards in Mexico, lies not in their own convictions as in the lack of self-belief of the modern Aztecs in Islamabad. The post-Musharraf Pakistan Army now conducts itself in a strictly professional way. It takes its orders from a civilian Government. Should it matter all that much that the civilian Government sits in Washington D.C.?
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| It is revealing that even before President Asif Ali Zardari has been invited to the US capital, his subordinate General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is undertaking a week-long visit to the US. Will it be to explain why the Pakistan Army is not doing more against the Taliban and Al Qaeda? Is it to obtain more support to provide yet more support? Will the new-Obama administration demand more Pakistani bangs per US buck? One will know that only after Kayani returns, and even then only partially. Until then, political concessions such as the latest “accord” between a state and a non-state will substitute for national policy. Neville Chamberlain tried that in the 1940s. In his lexicon, it was peace with honour. Winston Churchill dubbed it appeasement. |
| Which number should President Zardari call to get a plumber to fix his leaking nation? |
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[COVERT MAGAZINE, 1-15 March 2009]
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